Profile 2020: Meet the new face of Boone Funeral Home in Indianola

The Bayou Academy graduate and son of Will and Alicia Marlow, he wasted no time after finishing high school in joining the Army National Guard.

In December, Marlow graduated from mortuary school at Northwest Mississippi Community College, and he passed his state boards exam in January and officially took over the Indianola office of Boone Funeral Home.

His arrival in the funeral home business came after two attempts to join the military, he said.

“That’s what I really wanted to do,” Marlow said. “To be honest with you, that’s still my biggest passion, to be in the military.”

Marlow went to basic training at Fort Benning out of high school, but his stay there did not last long.

After failing a hearing test, he was sent home.

“I had to come home and wait a whole year,” he said. “I just went to work.”

The next year, he was sent to Fort Jackson for basic training.

“I did another hearing test, and I failed that,” Marlow said. “I had to wait a whole month before I was sent home.”

Knowing that his stay in Mississippi was probably going to be permanent at this point, Marlow began to explore career opportunities.

One day, he asked his uncle, Mark King of Boone Funeral Home, if he would consider bringing him on board, and his first experience with a funeral just happened to be that of a Prisoner of War whose remains were brought back home to Greenville to be buried.

“A few weeks later, he called me, and he said, ‘I have a service for this military guy,’” Marlow said. “That was my first start in this career. I thought that was really cool.”

Marlow said just about every branch of the military was represented at the funeral, and although he was only directing traffic at the time, he knew this was the path God had placed before him.

When he finished school at Northwest, Marlow was handed the keys to Indianola’s Boone Funeral Home office.

From here, Marlow, who lives in Indianola now, says he wants to become more involved with the community through church and civic organizations like the Rotary Club and Indianola Chamber Main Street.

Most of all, Marlow said he wants to be there for grieving families.

“I want to do my part in the community,” he said. “I want do serve my community the best way I can.”